News & Updates

Game Content

Features

Community

Interviews

In this week's Famitsu, a few members of the development team for Final Fantasy XIV confirm that we'll be hearing some details about the PS3 version of the game at this year's Tokyo Game Show!

There will be some user interface differences between the PC and the PS3 version. For instance, theres no horizontally lined-up icons showing up the PS3 version. The designers are attempting to fit all of the main commands into eight items and also evolve the targeting system (so that you'll be able to select from within the targeting circle).

Since its pretty much confirmed that we won't be hearing much about the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIV during the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary, seems like we'll have to wait till September 20th to hear more about that matter.

Just a few weeks before its release in Japan, Famitsu have some more coverage on Final Fantasy Type-0's gameplay mechanics, as well as releasing the above image of all the moogles that comprise the adorable Cranberry Knights.

An additional "God of War" that players can take control of during battle is Diablos, who has a barrier wall ability and a "gravity ball." As the gravity ball grows, it indiscriminately sucks out HP from your enemies and allies.

On your airship, you get to make use of a magical cannon that can take out dragons that try to attack you in the skies. Some dragons will land on your ship, which then proceeds to a standard battle.

Famitsu conducts an interview with with director Motomu Toriyama, battle director Yusuke Matsui, and character designer Tetsuya Nomura on the upcoming title, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and they reveal quite a few interesting tidbits regarding both the story and gameplay of the game.

First off, a bit of background info about Serah. In the Tokyo Game Show trailer, it shows Serah reuniting with Snow for the first time in two years. Everyone, including Snow, believes that Lightning is either dead or returned to crystal form while Serah firmly believes that Lightning is alive. Despite of what he said, Snow believes Serah and leaves her behind in New Bodhum in persuit of finding Lightning. It's been a while since Snow has left so when Noel appears on the scene, Serah takes her chance to go and find Lightning herself.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII may not have made an appearance at Tokyo Game Show 2011 this year, but thankfully that doesn't prevent us from receiving any updates. Famitsu recently conducted an interview with director and designer Tetsuya Noruma, who talked a little bit about the game's engine and new lighting system.

Nomura stated that he recently did a walkthrough of the full world map, checking up on the game's dungeons and town side paths. He mentions being impressed about the expansiveness of the whole game.

The main focus of the interview, however, is the use of Visual Works' new Luminous Engine (Visual Works is an internal studio responsible for CGI work done for Square Enix games), an all-purpose toolkit designed for multi-platform development. Nomura explained that the Luminous Engine is quite capable of some very impressive lighting and it fits with the team's aim for a more photorealistic game.

With that said, Versus XIII is only incorporating Luminous' lighting engine. Nomura notes that Versus XIII has its own action oriented engine, which has its strong points, but coupled together with Luminous and you can expect some impressive tech.

Nomura ends the interview by promising fans a "Final Fantasy like you've never seen before." Recently, Square Enix did state that Final Fantasy Versus XIII entered into full production. So hopefully in due time, after the Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Final Fantasy Type-0 releases, we may hear some more news soon.

A few weeks ago, we posted a rumour which talked about potential differences between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Final Fantasy XIII. Well, they've now been confirmed as true in the latest edition of Famitsu Magazine in Japan.

As disclosed before, Final Fantasy XIII on the PlayStation 3 will featured lossless audio, and 1080p cutscenes, something which won't be present in the Xbox 360 version of the game. Famitsu didn't release the amount of compression that will be found in the Xbox 360 version, but they confirmed that it will indeed be compressed - even though it will be coming on multiple DVDs, it simply couldn't fit. The PlayStation 3 version is going to take advantage of a single dual-layered Blu-Ray disc, meaning it's easily possible.

While Final Fantasy XIII isn't set to be released until next week in Japan, the official Famitsu review for the game has been leaked early in Hong Kong.

The game's score was just one point short of a perfect score, getting 39/40, with only one reviewer giving the game a 9/10. According to translations of the leaked scan, the reviewer found faults in the the screen being too cluttered at times but noted that the enjoyment the game provides outweighs the issues.

Final Fantasy XIII is set to be released in Japan on December 17th, 2009 exclusively on the PlayStation3. The game will be available in North American and Europe on March 9th, 2009 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Famitsu has released digital versions of many of the Final Fantasy XIII screen shots scene in their latest issue. Among the 17 screen shots are images of the chocobos of Final Fantasy XIII, Hope hope Estheim along side his Alexander summon in-and-outside of battle, the Crystarium character growth system, and a few wide shots of new areas and enemies. Check out the screens below.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Explosion of Awesome!

For a Final Fantasy fan, E3 2015 was pretty crazy. Not only did we have a new game announced exclusively for PS4/PS Vita in World of Final Fantasy, Square Enix also dropped a bomb by revealing the Final Fantasy VII Remake.